Pickles ||Inumaki x Reader||

Ten || Left Shoe

-Art by kaw_ano on Twitter-

"And what are you up to right now?" I spoke into the device balanced between my ear and shoulder as I folded my pajamas away.

There was a small pause from the person on the other end of the phone before they answered. "Ah, just chilling in Kenya at the moment." Came Yuta's voice through the speaker. "So anyways, you mentioned the exchange event is today, are you looking forward to it?" 

"No," I snorted, earning a knowing sigh from the boy over the line. "You should just take a plane here and replace me. Our team would win instantly."

"You know I can't do that. And besides, the only reason I won last year was because of Rika," He chuckled. 

I let out a long breath as I slumped into my velvet armchair, and stared out of the bedroom window. "That's a shame, I even would have paid you to take my spot. Todo would be pretty happy too if he got to fight you again." But he only groaned, saying how intimidated he was by the third-year. "Yeah, he's a real hassle. He's still asking me to go out with him, can you believe how persistent the guy is?"

Grabbing a hairbrush from the table in front of me, I tugged at the knots in the bird's nest on my head while holding up the phone with my other hand. "Stay away from guys like him, (Y/N)!" Yuta warned like a worried father, making me laugh. "Was Inumaki jealous?" He perked up suddenly.

"Why do you always ask about Toge every time you call? You should ask him out instead since you're so obsessed with him!" As I yelled into the speaker, there was a knock on my door before it creaked open. Maki entered, her high ponytail swaying from side to side as she stomped over to me, clearly annoyed that I wasn't ready yet.

Once I gestured that I was on the phone with Yuta she eased up a little, but still seemed to want me to hurry because she silently took the hairbrush from my hands and began fixing my hair instead. 

"Hey, that's your job, we had an agreement!" Whined the boy on the other end of the line.

There wasn't much I could say to retaliate since he was right. It took months but Yuta did eventually get me to admit that I might have had a little bit of a small, tiny, crush on our quiet teammate. 

It wasn't my fault, really. How was I not supposed to absolutely swoon for him after he ate a pickle for me that one time? 

"I know, I know. I'll get to it, just give me some more time." I mumbled, wincing as Maki roughly tugged the brush through my tangled hair.

"Well it better not be too much time or else you'll end up regretting it." He responded curtly. 

But seeing as I was growing rather tired of Yuta and his desperation to play cupid, I chose to put an end to his pleads. "Woah, woah, woah- why would you say that about Maki? Uncool, Yuta, uncool." I gasped dramatically and feigned disappointment.

Just as I heard a small mumble of confusion from him over the line, Maki yanked the phone out of my hand. "What the hell did you just say about me, punk!?" She screamed into the device, giving an earful to the boy who I just threw under the bus.

While she continued yelling at him for something he never said, I changed into my uniform and ran my hands through my silky hair that was styled nicely thanks to the green haired girl. She hung up on him before he could understand what he did wrong while I observed the smoke fuming from her ears.

She passed me my phone and complained about Yuta's attitude as I locked my door so we could meet up with everyone together. 

When we got outside, everyone was waiting for us, with the exception of Nobara. My eyes darted to Toge who gave a welcoming nod in my direction, causing me to gulp nervously at the thought of having to fulfill the promise I made to Yuta someday. My head was in the clouds as I thought of the different ways I should confess when the time came and I mentally cursed Yuta for making me promise to do it someday.